175 top CEOs say they OPPOSE Biden's corporate tax hikes because it will slash wages

A new survey shows a whopping 98% of American CEOs say Joe Biden’s proposed corporate tax rate hike could severely stunt employees’ wage growth and companies’ profits.

Biden’s current proposal is paying for at least half of his $4 trillion ‘Build Back Better’ jobs, infrastructure and social welfare plan by raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from its current 21%.

A Business Roundtable Survey, however, finds that CEOs predict this hike, coupled with international tax changes, would weaken expansion, innovation and – most important for the jobs side – hiring.

Seventy-one percent of respondents said the hike would decrease their ability to hire employees and nearly 66% said it would create a slower wage growth for U.S. workers as Congress already grapples with what to do about the federal minimum wage.

‘The tax system needs to support innovation, R&D [research and development], capital investment and economic growth,’ Raytheon Technologies Corporation CEO Gregory Hayes said, according to the survey.

A Business Roundtable Survey (whose CEO Josh Colten is pictured above) found the 98% of CEOs think Joe Biden’s proposed corporate tax rate increase would negative affect wage growth, hiring and companies’ profits

‘As we look toward recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping competitive tax policies in place is needed to help reinvigorate the U.S. economy and lead to more opportunity for Americans,’ Raytheon CEO Gregory Hayes said

‘As we look toward recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping competitive tax policies in place is needed to help reinvigorate the U.S. economy and lead to more opportunity for Americans,’ he continued.

Hayes is also chairman of the Business Roundtable Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee.

Nearly all 178 of the CEOs surveyed in this poll released Monday said a 28% corporate tax rate would have a ‘moderately’ to ‘very’ significant adverse effect on their company’s competitiveness.

The tax burden, 75% of respondents said, would also negatively affect innovation as the U.S. competes on the global stage with other powerhouse countries like China.

The Business Roundtable survey was conducted March 8 through March 19.

As part of former President Donald Trump’s major 2017 tax plan, he reduced the corporate tax rate from 35%, which was a rate established by Bill Clinton in 1993, to 21%, where it has remained since.

‘Prior to the pandemic, the U.S. corporate tax rate drove economic growth, creating 6 million jobs, pushing the unemployment rate to a 50-year low and increasing middle class wages,’ Hayes lauded of the lowered rate.

Trump often touts reaching record-low unemployment numbers during his administration.

‘From 2018 to 2019, major U.S. companies grew their R&D by 25 percent compared to the two years prior,’ Hayes continued. ‘The current U.S. corporate tax rate has also helped put U.S. businesses on a more level playing field with global competitors and encouraged businesses to invest and grow here in the United States.’

Biden has proposed in his infrastructure plan that corporate tax rates be increased from 21% to 28% to pay for the plan – which his team says will create nearly 3 million jobs

When the pandemic hit in spring 2020, millions of Americans lost their jobs, took pay cuts or were furloughed.

Congress has tried to amend this by pumping money into the economy and Americans’ hands by way of a slew of massive stimulus and relief bills – including one-time direct payments directly deposited to Americans’ bank accounts.

Biden a few weeks ago laid out his $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill, which includes a slew of what Republicans claim are ‘pet projects’ for Democrats that don’t classify as hard infrastructure.

The Business Roundtable survey was released the same day Biden hosted a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House to discuss his infrastructure plan.